HC Personal DB

Amateur sleuth

Ally

Best buds with Aethelbert Butler. Investigator of medium skill in her own right.

Has agreed to help investigate the names and backgrounds of coma patients in order to see if they connect to the etheric spirits found in the Moonbase Dataverse.

Amateur sleuth and Empowered human who stumbled into a Vory ritual.

Ally

Best buds and investigatory partners with Adel Martinez.

Was doing a his own messy investigation of the Vory and their ritual to obtain power when he stepped right into a magic circle and got it for himself. He has since been stabalized and is currently in the Moonbase.

Appears to have some basic Verdant powers now as an Empowered Human, telekinesis and mental force.

Has agreed to help investigate the names and backgrounds of coma patients in order to see if they connect to the etheric spirits found in the Moonbase Dataverse.

Multipart being only now reclaiming her identity after years fractured by HC

Strong Ally

An Elvan Princess, a caster of superior power. She was split by HC as part of their attempts to create a closer connection with The Verdant that would allow them to pull things from there into our world and visa versa.

You have recently discovered that she was there when The Virtual began and may have known The Mother of Daemons. However, she has seemed plagued with memory loss.

She is one of the few beings capable of creating equal-energy-exchange portals.

When Artria was pulled out of The Verdant by HC she was split into three pieces. One became the Banshee. One became the "AI" assistant that is used by almost all Virtual users. The third was sent to The Heap, a Virtual space firewalled in The HC Peak.

Jr. VP of HC Database Management

In a Jar

She was stuck in a Canopic jar in the Dataverse and you've since taken her out. She cannot be made concious without pain.

Hung with the Rollerz before the Keyfall. He worked with you briefly during the SoCentWa protests and was knocked out.

Neutral

SoCentWa representative to the Borough Council. Balding, dressed well but inexpensively. He is occasionally righteously angry (for good reason) and has done a good job representing SoCentWa for three terms. You met him briefly while he was being interviewed by Wrad Marge.

He is the last remaining major figure of the SoCentWa Rollerz and significantly involved in the local protest movement.

You met in Entity Storage where she was disembodied and trapped

Neutral

She was a researcher in the HC Moonbase before her experimentation with Eric Leahy left her trapped in Entity Storage for a decade.

Lower-1st Sector EPD Chief, this official isn't quite sure what your deal is, but has found you dependable.

Strong Ally, A Friend on the Force

Guimaras leads the Enclave Police Department in the Lower 1st, a sector that includes The Corner Marketplace and a portion of SoCentWa including the area's Core Park.

You encountered her during Case 0, Case 4 and Case 6. In each incident she found that you helped her a great deal and were amenable to disccusion. She's welcomed your input and, from her perspective at least, you've helped her with some rather difficult incidents.

She isn't clued in to The Verdent, but she is aware that something strange is happening around The Enclave and your little group appears to be experts. As a result she may call you in when the going gets weird, as she did during the post-Keyfall incident in Case 4.

Met in entity storage. Now a disembodied spirit stuck in a bifurcated circle in the Moonbase's Summoning Circle Lab

Enemy

Grey-skinned with a green sheen, especially on the scales that cap her shoulder-blades she looks mostly human otherwise, beyond rather far apart overly round and glassy eyes and rather small ears. A close examination will show slight webbing between her fingers. She was stuck in Entity Control and ended up possessing Eric Leahy before you banished her to become a disembodied spirit. She's pretty pissed at you for foiling her.

In charge of HC Optics Control - Interviews, Clearances, and Military Right-minding Operations.

Opposed

Never present in person, but frequently seen holoing in to keep an eye on optics control operations HC executes all over The Enclave. Graves is meticulously kept up, while also being boringly normal looking. He wears a distinctive old fashioned black suit, a short gold tie with an HC metal symbol that serves both as a tie pin and as the center of a chain that uses clips on either end to keep his lapels perfectly in place. He's a dark-skinned man with slim elaborate holo glasses that are constantly alight with whatever inner projections he is looking up.

Standing guard outside the Moonbase control room, he was reactivated along with the Moonbase

Strong Ally

Activated when the rest of the station was powered up, Divi is roaming the halls performing its duty of making sure nothing with a signal matching The Verdent escapes from one of the containment rooms. The guard isn't meant to do much combat on its own and is a spindly thing, with two arms with three fingered claws and small lasers mounted on each arm, it sits on top of two treaded wheels with a thin body and a oversized round head containing many camera eyes.

At some point someone painted a smiley face on the front of the transparent dome of its head. Divi isn't happy about that.

Was trapped in the HC Moonbase's Entity Storage for 10 years until you freed him.

Ally

Trapped in Entity Storage, the return of power to the ES server has awoken him and others who are now stuck in a Virtual room unsure what to do next. He wants to help you. He lived on the borderlands, in a town that he took you across the Riverwalk to get to. The town is in shambles, ravaged by creatures. He has sharply pointed ears and long fingers, but otherwise looks like a normal human.

Moonbase HC employee, now forcibly retired

Ally

A human who woke up in the moonbase after 10 years in cryo. She's stayed in the Moonbase. She keeps asking after Antim Quinn and looking for clues of her existence on the Moonbase.

She now knows that The Mother of Daemons and Antim Quinn are one in the same.

Quinn was her mentor and her boss, they had been working together to try and make the interactions between the Virtual and The Verdant safer and more stable.

After talking with Eric Leahy and getting some of his records and code repositories she's now working on trying to understand what HC has done to the connection between our two worlds and what Antim was working on as an overall goal.

"Those things aren't human, who cares what happens to them, I need power to survive."

Enemy

He is an Interface Tech, which means he has visible ports at the back of his spine, a once shaved head now gone shaggy, and a number of mechanisms that now glow with Etheric light that run down his arms. He wears the rags of a uniform More crudely he has implanted gold circuits in his skin, which do little practical but help keep the Banshee from messing with him. If he gets into physical combat with the players he'll start bleeding from his crude gold metal implants. His pockets are stuffed with broken circuit board and gold-plated wiring.

He's still stuck in an empowered circle on The Moonbase.

Before spending 10 years trapped in the moonbase he worked for HC on their project to use The Verdant to materialize objects into The Real. He's responsible for splitting Artria and pulling her mostly into our world.

The Oracle of Clock, lost in your first encounter with a daemon.

Lost

You met briefly in your first case when she saved you from Daemons and sacrificed herself. You found her body in a coma in her office in HC Peak Tower. When you saw her body she was a woman wearing normal street clothes, with a mark on her inner-wrist, some sort of tattoo with a strange symbol, a horned X, with zig-zagging lines underneath it, crossing over a central line that runs through the whole thing. She has long hair dyed the same exact shade of purple as the her avatar you met in The Virtual. She's was still breathing but in a coma.

She recently had all of her clearances at HC revoked and was fired.

In The Virtual she radiates an inner light, has animated colors running over her formal, if purple, dress, a shifting rainbow of light and static running up it in bands, her hair stretches impossibly up and out, the same color as her dress and spiked into five forward leaning peaks that reach a foot out.

She moves ultra fast in the Virtual and Artria named her the Oracle of Clock.

In her hand she held a chain mace with a narrow black handle and a clock-face for a head, the hands sticking out of its circumpherance, ultra sharp. She dropped it when the Daemon ate her in The Virtual and you couldn't pick it up.

Union Leader

Neutral

A protest leader, organizer with Wall Techs & Vators / Vents Local 366, against HC's neglect of the Virtual Access given to the Wall-ys. Their unstable connections and data holes make it harder and harder to make a living. The flares making life downright dangerous.

You met him very briefly during the protests in SoCentWa.

Free Battalion Cyber Leader and Trooper. Merc for hire, hired by HC.

Neutral

Lt. of the Free Battalion. She serves under command of her older sister. Halvet is as loyal to the word of the contract as any Free Battalion member but she has a little more room in her execution for heart and compassion. She leads the local Battalion cyber operations as well as serving in the field.

Seen running a Virtual Fortress and usually carries signature Free Battalion armor and an assault rifle.

Her current assignment, along with almost all of the Free Battalion in The Enclave, is working for HC to provide extra security against troublemakers protesting Virt failures.

Roboticist, Luchadorable, and totally opposed to being clued in in any way.

Strong Ally, Luchadorables chat frequenter

Noble was convinced to become a big fan of The Luchador during their Case 0 encounter.

He owns a robot vending and repair stand in The Corner Marketplace. Noble is a rather grumpty and gruff type who is firmly opposed to any sort of magic or spiritualism.

SoCentWa representative to the Borough Council

Unknown

SoCentWa representative to the Borough Council. Balding, dressed well but inexpensively. He is occasionally righteously angry (for good reason) and has done a good job representing SoCentWa for three terms. You met him briefly while he was being interviewed by Wrad Marge.

CEO of HC

Unknown

CEO of HermitageCorp.

The Mother of Daemons called him a Warlock and you discovered a recording of him demanding that she continue to draw power out of The Verdant to drive his own interests.

He had hopped to secure an escape route out of our plane of existence with the help of the Mi-Go until that plan was thwarted when his dishonesty was revealed.

Under his oversight The Virtual has essentially become a tool for fracking power out of The Verdant.

Doctor of Spiritualism, crystal ball vendor. Not at all clued in.

Neutral, Frequent Emailer

Dr. Karen Wathey owns a spiritualism store in The Corner Marketplace and has somehow managed to infer a lot of the practice of magic without knowing a true thing about it.

In exchange for her help on Case 0 you purchased a rather expensive crystal ball from her and have ended up signed up for her email list.

She has pale skin, long curley hair, big eyes and big glasses and her ability to look slightly amazed at everything covers up the fact that she is a rather savey businessperson.

"They've taken it all from me"

Ally

Punk 15 year old girl wearning purposefully old-fashioned AR glasses and bvi(brain virtual interface)-headband. Will walk around town and generally disobey.

Activated, a balanced user of etheric energies.

Beserk

No matter how much harm you take, you can always keep going until the current fight is over. During a fight, the Keeper may not use harm moves on you and you cannot die. When the fight ends, all harm takes effect as normal.

Tools Matter

With your signature weapon (see your gear, below), you get +1 to kick some ass.

Her Signature Weapon is a punch dagger

The other teens sort of see this as something fun but she sees this as something that comes out of what was taken from her and her powers come from her anger. She has become their defacto leader.

She can come and go from the moon and access the research lab freely, but only by herself.

Briefed Madra on everything that's going on.

"I'll see you later."

Enemy

Mysterious woman with Daemon teeth, a dark-green fedora, and a tendency to show up near green globes of power.

She wishes to wreck havoc with vengeance upon HC CEO John Dyer, whom she blames for stranding her in The Verdant for a decade.

You have learned that she was there, part of the team that initially connected The Virtual with The Verdant. Back then her real name was Antim Quinn and she may have been the first human to enter The Verdant under her own power.

For the first time the public now knows her name and some of her role in creating The Virtual.

Before she was banashed by John Dyer to The Verdant she had been trying to disconnect The Verdant from The Virtual, or at least make the process by which they were connected less cannibalistic of The Virtual's energy.

She was a mentor to Eliabeth (Elli) Cordova, who she saw something of herself in, as they were both engineers who had made their way up from the Wall districts through excellence in their work.

She attempted to sound the alarm on the fact that HC is essentially fracking The Verdant for energy and hurting that world by doing so.

She seems to have been changed significantly by her banishment, or some other aspect of her experience fighting John Dyer.

Free Battalion Team Leader

Neutral

Nadia commands the team of Free Battalion Mercs that maintain order against those who might damage HC's property or image. She's loyal to the word of her contract with HC and a superb fighter and beloved commander.

Usually carries an assault rifle.

Like all the Free Battalion she wears the bladed Anubis helmet and is distinguished only by a set of rank lines painted on her chest.

Her current assignment, along with almost all of the Free Battalion in The Enclave, is working for HC to provide extra security against troublemakers protesting Virt failures.

A local leader of the Animal Liberation Front at The Corner Marketplace.

Ally, Owed a Favor

Robin is a local leader in The Corner Marketplace representing ALF (The Animal Liberation Front).

She runs a small booth in The Corner Marketplace (tCM) raising money for ALF and recurits for them there along with at tCM location: "The Crazy Cats Club".

She helped you out during Case 0 and now you owe her a favor. She'll call it in eventually.

HC middle manager and a leader among the Theta Cult

Deceased

Theta Cultist long trapped in the Moonbase's dataverse. He was tapped into great power and attempted to ambush you when you stopped his trading with the Mi-Go, a being who had planned to build an inter dimensional escape tunnel for John Dyer.

An older gentlemen in disheveled clothes.

Tier 4 manager for HC Datascience

Living in the Spire,

Locked in for 10 years.

When he performs magic tiny tentacles pop out of the tears in his clothes.

His empyric essence was given, as part of the payment, to the Mi-Go.

Ex-CFO of HC, presidential candidate

Unknown

Despite living most his life in The Enclave, presidential candidate and ex-CFO of HC John Dyer has garnered little support from his hometown, one of the most populous regions he would be responsible for as President. Polls find that, at least in the case of Dyer, familiarity does indeed breed contempt. Enclave residents polled him the lowest among the current candidates, a stat which coincides with their especially low consideration of HC in general.

Died during the first push vs EPD in the post-Keyfall SoCentWa protests

Deceased

Died during the first push vs EPD in the post-Keyfall SoCentWa protests

Journalist. RollarGirl Champ. Intrepid citizen of The Enclave. Wrad Marge believes that magic is real after you... oops... did some in front of her.

Ally

"I'm here to roll and report"

Journalist, RollarGirl champ, intrepid citizen of The Enclave. Wrad believes that magic is real after you… oops… did some in front of her.

Wrad Marge is 6ft 2in, covered in tattoos down each arm and constintly followed by a small palm-drone, with a red blinking light that indicates when she's triggered recording. She wears a hardened vest covered in ceramic plates, painted to match the vibrent reds blues and greens of her tattoos and with hand stitched black cozzies around the clasps at the top.

Wradf is Clued In. You recently gave her information from the Moonbase Dataverse that proves that Antim Quinn, not John Dyer is the originator of The Virtual.

That Which Restlessly Loops Outside, Feaster From The Dark, Deleter of All, The Angle of Decay, The Zero

Unknown

All things decay. YO slash MTheta, as he is called by the followers of the Theta Cult, is a being of unknown origins and limitations. He is far beyond our world, but the Theta Cultists wish him to come and bring the decay that will end all things.

The Theta Cultists have realized that too much destabilization of the dimension will attract him and have him eat us all.

The Lurker at the Firewall, The Key and the Authenticator, The Decrypter

Unknown

Composed of 13 rainbow-static-filled globes glowing with an almost blinding empyrean magic each globe has its own name and to avoid overwhelming the players only one will speak to them at a time. An entity translated from The Verdent but rather inhuman in its interactions with you. It sounds and acts more programmatic and mechanical than normal beings of The Virtual and speaks almost in code.

Usually represented as 13 rainbow-static-filled globes glowing with an almost blinding empyrean magic.

You have interacted with the following named globes:

Gomory (Now ensconced in the archive at the Moonbase), Zagan, Sytry, Eligor, Durson

Nihilist Changeling who works for HC

???

"Look at all these tasty enhancements, wouldn't you rather level up like me then end up a monster like her" Swollows another microtransaction pill

Stretched and tall when Zeroth smiles all that's inside is a whirlpool maw, an empty pool leading down into infinite blackness. He wears a mismatched assortment of parts and enhancements, on one arm is a mega-man style plaster, on the other a long red claw. He wears a full head helmet with sharp blade fins rising out of it like a set of mohowks. He's paid to play, every thing on him runs by the grace of payments to HC.

Nihilist Changeling who works for HC. He has an addiction to micro-payments and a significant level of skill. But the last time you encountered him you and he ended up battling and him coming out the lesser. When you first met he tried to recruit you to HC's side.

Humans who have managed to, through their own free will and willing embrace of The Verdant, make stable connections with etheric power from across the border.

Clued In

Activated humans were first encountered in the bowels of a Theta Cultist hideout. We observed that adults who were comas were being drained of etheric energy and left permanently soulless, however teens were observed to be regularly replenishing the etheric energy in themselves. When they were free they seemed to be Activated, embracing the power of The Verdant and even generating such power themselves. They seem to be on equal power and ability with any Changeling.

Many centuries ago a few creatures of The Verdant found out about The Real and either came over and fell in love with humans or placed spies.

Can be Clued In or Not

Changelings are the decedents of people and creatures of The Verdant that investigated The Real a long time ago. Some time in the past the border between The Verdant and The Real wore particularly thin and some in The Verdant curious about The Real crossed over, while others, thinking we might soon be at war, placed spies. The border would thicken again and the Verdant folk on The Real side were stranded, adapted and mixed with humanity. Changelings are their decedents and, now that the border has become endangered, they can easily tap into the etheric energy of The Verdant, sometimes without even meaning to.

Russian Gangers

Can be Clued In or Not

The Wall-based Vory lideris (smaller chapters of the Vory v Zakone) and chapters of the Cosa Nostra (the Mafia) have both traditionally been poor and less empowered within their larger organizations. However, your informants have told you that they have both adopted a new set of rituals that, while having some superficial differences (The Vory name theirs puteshestviye k rechnym zemlyam - Journey to the Riverlands, while the mafia call theirs acqua al maestro - water to the master) appear to involve deep meditation, a long period in The Virtual, and a return with some level of enhancement that doesn't appear to involve normal cyber or bio grafts.

The Cosa Nostra have been in The Enclave since before the walls were built and live all over the city. The Enclave's Mafia organization has been built out as a highly organized and strictly hierarchical group, but the increasing divisions between The Wall, The Mids and The Uppers has cut lines through their organization rendering their very top down communication style more obstacle than aide and leaving independent capos to take an increasing amount of power. The result is that the Mafia has found itself increasingly beset by internal politics, all while fighting EPD, HCSec and the Vory just to maintain their lines of supply and communication.

Cultists are those who may not have a permanent connection to power but tap it through rituals.

Can be Clued In or Not

Cultists must regularly engage in ritual in order to charge up on power they can access. Without this process, they're normal humans in weird robes.

Humans who have, through imbalance, come into contact with The Verdant

Clued in

Empowered humans represent a type that has come into contact with The Verdant via some sort of ritual. Humans can be empowered by tapping into the Verdant themselves, though such a process is usually complicated, requires ritual objects and a large group. A changeling or Verdant entity with the right expertise can usually empower a human directly, but doing so--because it requires an unbalanced transfer of power from The Verdant--would physically pain the user.

In The Enclave it isn't unusual to see laborers or enforces with a variaty of specaly cybernetics.

Can be Clued In or Not

Enhanced can be a wide variaty of humans. Cybernetic enhancement is particularly common in The Enclave and can be used to make characters faster, stronger, or smarter.

Russian Gangers

Can be Clued In or Not

The Wall-based Vory lideris (smaller chapters of the Vory v Zakone) and chapters of the Cosa Nostra (the Mafia) have both traditionally been poor and less empowered within their larger organizations. However, your informants have told you that they have both adopted a new set of rituals that, while having some superficial differences (The Vory name theirs puteshestviye k rechnym zemlyam - Journey to the Riverlands, while the mafia call theirs acqua al maestro - water to the master) appear to involve deep meditation, a long period in The Virtual, and a return with some level of enhancement that doesn't appear to involve normal cyber or bio grafts.

The White Vory is a American chapter of the larger Russian-based organization the Vory V Zakone. They have taken root in The Enclave only recently in the last decade.

Recent weaknesses in the Cosa Nostra have created an opportunity for the Vory to both expand their protection business and put quite a few cops in their pockets.

It is believed that the alliances between the Vory and the EPD in the wake of these bribes has changed the power structure, moving from a smaller group led by a Vory (a criminal who climbed the ranks) to a Avtoritet (a government official of some sort who runs things from a distance)

Locally the Vory operated in a highly decentralized manner with a major leader passing instructions down through various cutouts and lutenents and the majority of the organization operating in independent cells, usually local to their particular region of The Enclave.

El Hombre Magnifico.

Active

Leather and bone mask with spandex, mostly black and white, heavily purple. El Hombre Magnifico.

Real Name: Guy Flanders

On Twitch all the time streaming to fans.

Has a huge crush on Cat having been near her adventures.

Trained together and got tattoos together with Monstrous.

Glow in the dark costume.

Competing with Guapo Tereso - current world heavyweight champion.

Followers called: Luchadorables

Chain has silver and gold applied to it.

Special Skills:

Berserk: No matter how much harm you take, you can always keep going until the current fight is over. During a fight, the Keeper may not use harm moves on you and you cannot die. When the fight ends, all harm takes effect as normal.

Daredevil Move | Machismo | Intensive Training | Nanite Flush |

Suspicious Mind: If someone lies to you, you know it.

Signature move: palm strike to stun, slip behind the buy, flip him forward so he's facedown in front of him.

Giant Motorcycle

You've unlocked a new move:

Influencer: +Charm you've made it into the common eye as a Luchodor and have loyal fans clamoring for your attention at all times. Using your intrinsic connection to The Virtual you can manifest your fans for the duration of any encounter to fight with you. Consider this a gang of 10 summoned insanely loyal Luchador fans, all dressed in avatars that look like off-brand versions of your own. They will each be carrying your signature weapon, or any weapon you have previously used that is not a gun. They do +1 harm, get +1 armor and may be rolled separately as a Kick Some Ass move. They may take up to 5 harm before dissipating, but will dissipate instantly if you fail a combat role while they are active.

On a 10+ they manifest for the duration of the scene, on a 7 to 9 they'll only come through if you impress them with an cool successful Kick Some Ass first, on a failure you come one step closer to being challenged by your sworn enemy fighter.

Bonuses

+Cluing In

+Antim Quinn Supporter

K.F. Cindy

Active

Backwards chicken legs.

Snake Tail

Long nails and birdlike

Special Moves Magical Lab

Plume that looks like a mohoak

Feather tattoos.

6ft 3in

Leaves feathers behind

Almost Slayed by Guy Flanders and then proved that she was on the side of good. "I too had an uncle that was misunderstood but he choose light. and I saw that in Cindy."

Cat thinks that Cat is tied to her curse. She saw Cindy fall into a vat of preservatives by accident. She was in on the job but got startled and had a feathered jacket and left feathers behind. Bright and fluffy, white like a chicken.

5ft tall in The Real

Always white fur with pink ears.

Vulnerable to hot sauce

Drive: Wantonly consumes an unnerving resources.

She once server a dark master: The Colonel.

Administrates the Magical Laboratory in the moonbase. You have a mystical lab with all kinds of weird ingredients and tools useful for casting spells (like the use magic move, big magic, and any other magical moves).

Burn Everything: When you use magic to inflict harm, you can choose to inflict 3-harm area magic obvious or 3-harm ignore-armour magic obvious.

You've unlocked a new move:

The Beast among us: you've habitually given in to your monstrous nature and in doing so you've only gotten creepier, people will now automatically find you off putting and no longer assume your just a gangster with weird grafts. Now when you Manipulate Someone or try to help with a Manipulate take -1.

You may now roll +Weird to frighten the living daylights out of someone during combat instead. On a 10+ select 1; on a 7 - 9 select 2 or consider it a failure with no effects; on a failure (5 or less) choose three from the list.

Transmit: You can go instantly to anywhere you’ve visited before, or to a person you know well as long as they are not isolated from electronics. When you carry one or two people with you, roll +Weird. On a 10+ you all go where you wanted. On a 7-9, you don’t quite manage it. Either you are all separated, or you all appear in the wrong place.

What Does Not Kill Me…: If you have suffered harm in a fight, you gain +1 ongoing until the fight is over.

The Big Whammy: You can use your powers to kick some ass: roll +Weird instead of +Tough. The attack has 2-harm close obvious ignore-armour. On a miss, you’ll get a magical backlash.

Force of Will: When you apply your will to dispelling a magical effect, blocking a spell, or suspending a Phehomenon, roll +Weird. On a hit, momentary magics are cancelled completely, and long-lasting spells and effects are suspended temporarily. On a 10+, you can also spend Luck to instantly snuff out a powerful spell or strange effect. On a 7-9, you take 1-harm as the strain of dismissing magic unravels you.

List:

you scare them so much they will not go near you during the remainder of combat; they run away screaming; they're calling for help to take you out; they send out a message to warn everyone about you (-1 to all Manipulate Someone rolls forward); they are frightened to the point of snapping and focus their attacks on you and nothing will convince them to stop;

Bonuses

+Observing the Moonbase

+HC Entry

+Antim Quinn Supporter

First name Cat, last name Burglar.

Active

Small women with watchful eyes blending into the corners of the room.

Short

KF Cindy saved me from a monster and I owe her one. That was how you were introduced to the real underworld.

Guy knows her criminal past, she tells him what crimes she committed.

Special Skills:

Flight: You can fly. Mental Domination: When you gaze into a normal human’s eyes and exert your will over them, roll +Charm. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7-9, hold 1. You may spend your hold to give them an order. Regular people will follow your order, whatever it is. Hunters can choose whether they do it or not. If they do, they mark experience.

What Does Not Kill Me…: If you have suffered harm in a fight, you gain +1 ongoing until the fight is over.

Drive: Forego a rich profit in order to do the right thing.

Heat: The Colonel is someone with special powers, a person or monster, who you took advantage of. Stealing his magic recipe book and ran off with KF Cindy.

Prepared to Defend: Even truth seekers need to fight some times. Whenever you suffer harm when you kick some ass or protect someone, you suffer 1-harm less.

You've unlocked a new move:

Empowered Circle Maker: You may now create an empowered circle at will. You will always have with you the appropriate amount of salt and chalk that will allow you to (assuming no one interferes) create and empower a magical circle with the following rules:

etheric energy and any magic use cannot pass through it presents as a solid transparent wall in The Virtual a purely physical object will break the circle entities who have manifested from The Virtual or The Verdant cannot break the circle nor can they exert the will to push a physical object through in a way that will break the circle. entities that combine elements from The Real and The Virtual (possessed objects or people) are essentially subject to the effects of a banishment if they pass through the circle and will not break it.

You must roll Act Under Pressure to complete a circle during active combat.

What Does Not Kill Me…: If you have suffered harm in a fight, you gain +1 ongoing until the fight is over.

Floating Point: can levitate a 2nd sword and use it to attack 1 harm physical 1 harm magic Parries other swords Floats 2 arm lengths.

Bonuses

+Heap Investigation

+real/verdant link

+Antim Quinn Supporter

A large and rather expensive crystal ball.

Translucent

A large and rather expensive crystal ball.

It doesn't seem to do anything but Dr. Karen Wathey told you she doesn't give refund.

3 sets of armor reclaimed from haunted spacesuits on the HC Moonbase

Currently being Worn

Black, blue and red, and strung together with gold wiring. Gives +1 armor.

A curvey delicate looking dagger you reclaimed from some nasty rituals.

Bloodied

A curvey delicate looking dagger you reclaimed from some nasty rituals. It's inlaid with gold, silicon and silver.

2 cases of 12 water bottles that you sorta stole.

Undrunk

Just water, you know?

Excellent location to get some research done.

Open

This fine wood-paneled room is covered in elaborate magical signs and runes and filled to the brim with books, all digitized and searchable. There are few locations that could tell you more about the power of The Verdent. At the back is the reading alcove, a small podium with an isolated interface to AI334.

The AI 334 here is possessed by an aspect of YS/x named Gomory.

Farming, tourism and a werewolf problem.

Open

Another small suburban town about an hour from The Enclave and filled with retirees. This one is distinguished from some of the others because after the Great Flood they managed to drain and dry some large tracts of accompanying land, helped by levies they had built (though needed to improve after) before the Great Flood. Some small amount of it has been converted to corn farmland while the rest has been left to grow on its own, creating a misty and humid moor that few venture into.

The town square is cobbled and surrounded by a bakery (where Paisley Lloyd is), a number of other small shops, a general store, and The Suburban Isle Pub. Everything around is purposefully quaint and has well polished facades and construction, indicating care. The main road from the docks leads into the square while the road out leads up a nearby hill to a large red farm building that sits next to a grain silo. Beyond that is a small flat plain where you can see well ordered corn stalks and beyond that fog wells up over large black walls that sparkle with integrated electronics.

A suburb at the edge of the mids with a dark secret.

Open

MidsBlock 53515, a suburban mids town called Fivers that exemplifies by the uptight communities on the edge of the mids: outside the inner city, overlooking the floodwaters that splash up at the furthest edges of the gently sloping city sides that build up from the base of the Wall. Fivers is filled with the semi-retired, the upper middle-class remote and core-ward workers, and teens--apparently looking for any way to push their parents. It is a neighborhood where residents of more core-ward towns, where porer people live in more dense housing, must pass through heading to work in the factories and warehouses of The Wall, but get the side eye if they should stop for too long. And when you arrived from the damp city-edge transit tubes you got the side-eye too.

A welcome sign sits about a block from the disembarkment area, across the stretch of a mostly full hover-dock lot. "Welcome to Mids Block 53515, East Northern Mids, The Fivers, a sea-side estate." At the bottom of the sign someone has applied a palm sized sticker with an abstract illustration of an eye and the words "Protected by BlockWatch." A small bus shelter sits between you and the sign. It has a large and visible camera sitting across the street looking directly at it.

The air is already damp when you step past the sign but you can see a row of nearly identical squat two level houses, with the only differentiated being a small attic on every fourth house, all painted an off-beige color with postage-stamp lawns, each with a sprinkler running. The narrow airspace between the houses' roofs and the ceiling of the neighborhood makes the support structures for this level visible and you can see smooth white cylinders running from the floor to the ceiling visible down the length of the block down towards what seems like a denser area 10 houses deep that runs buildings all the way to the roof. Every support has a small garage that sits almost right up against it, joined to the nearby house. As you walk into the neighborhood the sprinklers all stop at once and sink back down into the ground with an audible click. It is midday but what remains is scilence and you get the distinct feeling that eyes are pearing at you out of the doorbell cameras sitting, prominently marked, to the side of each houses' front door.

Some locations inside Fivers:

Fivers Centraal

Centraal is the downtown of Fivers, it contains a number of store fronts including a coffee shop, a fashion shop, a high class cyber slash body mod chain, and a CommunityCare-By-HC brand quik-care medical clinic.

Ultra Health Clinic

A lot of coma cases have run through here, people falling into comas mysteriously and they've been unable to revive them. Their relations have taken them home.

HC has funded them to examine these comas.

School Complex 53515 (Fivers K-High)

The School Complex is a large sprawling building

It's a moonbase and you're in charge of it.

Open

Welcome to the HermitCorp Moon Base, founded during a secret 12th moon landing, it was to created by HC in order to expand what they did and could do in The Verdent, the mystical realm that has been lashed to The Virtual. This was their base for a number of secret experiments on The Verd and its inhabitants. The last one they did was attempt to force a "Flare", a manifestation of the Verdent into the real world. The hope was that they could create permanent manifestations, creating something out of nothing in the real world using magic.

This spectacularly backfired.

They attempted (led by ) to bring a powerful fairy into the real, but instead managed to split the entity in half. They permenently manifested and stranded the part of her that is her raw power, creating a near mindless enraged banshee, Zetriz, that killed, or magically forced into survatude everyone on the base. The core intelligence became enslaved to HC but stuck in The Virtual unable to reach The Verdent without its power. That became Artria [Are-tree-ah]. Artria is unaware that part of herself is on the base, she just knows that it was abandoned and is now out of the reach of HC, even if it was where she first came into contact with HC and our world. This is the only place she can talk freely to the players so she managed to bring them here and with the boon from YS/x she's managed to activate and power it up. This particular boon is tied to a part of YS/x called Gomory (one of the globes).

The Control Room is off-center and leads into a hub of three other hallways, each hallway curls around to another matching corridor and all are also connected by an outer ring corridor:

The Laboratory Sector
- Summoning Circle Lab
- Connection Bridge Lab
- Testing and Observation Room

The Server Sector
- Entity Storage Center
- Records Room
- Main Server Farm

The Personal Sector
- Cryo
- Cafeteria
- Armory

Previously visited area of SoCentWa where you first encounter The Mother of Daemons.

Open

A 7 floor narrow vertical market, it runs from the lowest level of Midway to the upper floor of the Lower-3rd with 35 stores (5 per level) and a large welcoming entry-hall that faces the Lower-3rd's core park.

Normally there are numerous guards about.

You re-activated their connection to The Virtual.

A virtual transitional space (borderland) that sits between The Enclave and the Suburban Isles, The Real and The Verdent.

Open

The Moonbase Records room opens to this enormous semi-empyric database that contains vast records and recordings within a virtual space patterned after our solar system.

When the rainbow static clears from your vision you find yourself in an enormous room. The walls, the ceiling the floor, they are all made of transparent material, and through them you can see, with perfect clarity, the solar system stretching off into the distance, looking like a perfect virtual classroom sim. When you look down you can see the planet Earth, flickering with light. As you watch whole buildings rise out of a green virtual mist towering thousands of stories assembled by millions of robots and then are disassembled just as quickly. Whole areas, once populated in the distant past, are dark, flooded out with no power or Virtual running through them. As you watch, passing below you and glowing as a beacon even among other strong lights of neon-style Virtual green, is The Enclave, it's walls are clearly set, huge virtual constructs representing intense ongoing calculation and power use, but constructs flow out and over the edges, people working, protesting, playing, learning, stealing, and just generally living their lives in The Virtual. Etheric power wells up from the center of it all, an entirely different shade of green that just wells up from the center of The Enclave, the HC Spire which reaches so high that it almost touches you in orbit. From here you can see it is filled with lights, and fine strings that reach down and out all over The Enclave and the world. Two threads reach up to touch the representation of Saturn. As you watch red pulses pass through those lines of power and data and go off into the depths of The Enclave or out into the world, and atop the tower is an enormous glowing symbol, thick with red light it is a horned X, with zig-zagging lines underneath it, crossing over a central line that runs through the whole thing. You've seen it once before, tattooed on the arm of Farrah Price when you were briefly in the Spire. It slowly shifts rotating until the front of the symbol faces directly at you, then it turns away.

The rest of the room looks out at the rest of the solar system, all lined up perfectly before you and in perfect focus in a way impossible in The Real. Some pieces are obscured however, because set against the clear walls are bookshelves that stretch up into multiple stories worth of space. Each is wrought out of what looks like fine wood, but when you squint you can see it hundreds of thousands of lines of crawling code that might have once circulated in infinite loops but now stops and starts with sickly laggy jumps. Few books remain on the shelves and what ones do seem ragged and torn. Huge swaths of shelves that surround you are entirely empty and crudely painted over these empty sections in what looks like ash are crudely drawn Theta symbols, looking barely different from stylistic zeros. There is a brief flash of brown and black as a human form runs at top speed in front of you grabs a book and then disappears in the direction of the lined up solar system planets.

Your eyes follow the symbols as they repeat up the shelves to the clear roof, from which hangs a dim chandelier hanging on a static point in an infinity of darkness that has taken the place of what you expect to be stars. The roof looks out on pure nothingness that continues to keep your attention. In the darkness you see something enormous gleam with a moment of fiery red light, though it is faded and blurred with distance, a set of three interlocked snakes, a bright eye opens and it does not see you, but it is searching and for a moment a scream wells up inside you but then the light dims and there is only a brief hint of dark motion that disappears into nothingness again. You turn away from the ceiling. Perhaps it is best not to look there again.

The worldwide HQ of HermitageCorp and both the center and the tallest thing in The Enclave.

Locked Off

The Peak is the headquarters of HC and the central tower of The Enclave. It is also the repository of most of The Virtual's infrastructure and a number of heavily firewalled and air-gapped Virtual spaces.

Last time you were in The Peak you found yourself spit out into Farrah Price's office.

The Heap is a secure space somewhere in The Peak.

A virtual transitional space (borderland) that sits between The Enclave and the Suburban Isles, The Real and The Verdent.

Open

Moonbase Entity Storage now opens to here.

This is a Virtual construct that stretches off in all directions, you can see water lapping at a dozen islands in the distance. Last time you were here Earendil directed you to his home town through The Riverwalk, as it was one of the towns of The Verdent Borderlands.

A small town that found big problems when the Thwip stars moved in.

Open

You vs Rogue Taxidermist Lawerence Beech.

The Spin: 2106/02/28

Prologue

It's a Saturday. Today is your monthly game in The Virtual. You all came together for a reason. Last year, at this time, the three of you were plugged in when an amazingly rare event occured, The Virtual, a VR internet that connects everything in the world, including holograms, physical screens and plugged in VR glasses, fitzed out. You all received a shock to your system and when you woke up hours later in The Real you found yourselves endowed with something a little extra-normal. It seemed silly to call it magic, but what else could you call it? Strange things happened at your will in The Real, almost like the types of games you played in The Vert were leaking out into normal life. But it isn't just that, you started to find The Vert bending to your will a lot more readily than you were used to. Between now and then life has happened, strange encounters that you tried to write off, but couldn't. Strange information has started appearing in your heads. And sometimes, strange inclinations. Weird abilities and deformations. You've had strange encounters in The Virt, and outside as you've discovered and gotten involved with people in The Real who have had the same type of strange powers you did. You've stretched the limits, though, and there were serious limits, none of your strange new powers were easy to use or dependable.

Main Location

The Corner Marketplace

The Monster

You went up against rouge empowered taxidermist Lawerence Beech. With the help of The Mother of Daemons he gained enough magical energy to enchant his creations and combine them with cybernetics to create crazy creatures. He's had moved into a hidden workshop through the fiber-tunnels behind his old shop and was putting the touches on daemon/cybernetic modifications to his taxidermic creations in order to take over the Marketplace and then capture humans to turn into his minions.

The Result

You defeated Beech and stabilized The Virtual in the corner marketplace. The Mother of Daemon's showed up and stole a ball of green energy out from his failing body.

Aiden Logan, social media super star, has fallen into a coma. The house is thrown into a mysterious lock down.

The Spin: 2106/03/05

Prologue

A voice echos in the space, bouncing around with vague echos out into the dark hallways surrounding the dimly lit command center that you now can look out of to see the surface of the moon. Despite the forboding view, the voice is bright, feminine and recognizable. In a moment you realize that it is Artria [Are-tree-ah] the popular personal assistant sold by HC and extremely popular throughout The Virtual.

"I have lost my last Oracle. Gate connections failing. Five minutes to loss of independent thought. Two minutes until full power loss at this location. One point Five minutes until life support failure"

A projector flickers to life and uses red laser light to show the three times on top of the window. They begin to count down."

"I require a boon from The Decrypter. Scanning for manifestations accompanied by rainbow bridge denial"

One of the screens flickers to life and projects out a life size hologram that surrounds you. Bright colors play across the room and an upbeat theme chimes. A more monotone version of Artria's voice sounds. "Last week on Thwip House"

The simulation runs forward at 10x speed, skipping through what appear to be a number of introductory segments of young people, noticeably un-modified with any cybernetics but wearing watches and statement necklaces with distinctive symbols on them, glowing with projections as they talk at a high screech in forward speed. It drops down to normal speed as a women with purple hair starts banging against a door with no effect. She hits the crescent moon symbol on her wrist. "Why can't I get out? What's wrong with the door?" She turns towards you. "I'm not kidding you guys, the door crashed or something." A fastforward again. Then "He won't wake up" A different women this time, she's wearing what appears to be an purely-fabric version of a knight's armor that is noticeably sagging out of shape. She has an elaborate medieval-style hairdo kept together by a large 12 point star symbol. She turns from you towards a man laying on the floor with a fopish blonde haircut that would normally be covering one eye if it hadn't been pushed back. He appears to have only gotten half dressed, wearing formal looking black slacks but naked above the waist except for a clunky black-chain necklace that holds a familiar looking glowing green orb. "This is a bad joke A. Give it up, you're freaking me out!" She shoves him and his stiff hairdo falls back into his eyes. There is sudden canned laughter that the woman doesn't appear to be aware of. The scene switches to the view of another man, this one wearing an elaborate bright green cowboy hat looking dead at the camera as what appears to be a normal hallway suddenly deforms and twists behind him. Then the sim fast forwards again.

The upbeat theme plays again and the scene cuts out.

"75 seconds to life support failure," Artria says in a more upbeat tone.

The screens around you flicker to a view of a house standing in the middle of a pretty garden and then are covered with flickers of light. They switch view to misty road running away from a boat dock. They then are covered with a familiar fuzz of rainbow static.

"Independent thought failure in four minutes. I need your help. This is the only Manifestation of The Decryptor I can find. You must bargain."

Main Locations

Upland Cay & the Thwip House

The Monster

ExtraA Logan - Vengeful Spirit

Weaknesses:

"his mortal body" - alive and in a coma or dead his body within the house is an anchor for his spirit. If alive and in a coma, destroying the chain and removing the magic fetish will stop the spirit and he will wake up. If dead his body must be destroyed.

"his gifted magic fetish"

As a ghost, a lot of attacks won’t hurt him. Only attacks using rock salt, cold iron, or magic can harm him at all.

The Result

You discovered the Mother of Daemons creates deals with humans to place magic in them or enslave them to others and encountered a number of those she created deals with and managed to defeat them, even as the insanity of Logan meshed The Real and The Virtual around you.

You met YS/x for the first time, a creature who seems to have overwhelming empyrean power.

Logan seemed to have lost control of his powers, a bargain that was more than he could handle.

However, you found you could defeat him with the help of a little salt and some good magic.

Moon's haunted, grab shotguns.

The Spin: 2106/03/12

Prologue

"HC Landing 12 Base fully functional. I now have a reserved server farm to power independent thought outside the restrictions of HC"

Main Location

HC Landing Base 12

The Monster

Zetriz The Banshee

The Banshee was the manifested Etheric power of Artria, ripped from the Verd by HC it seeks to punish the HC scientists who remain, destroy the base and wreck terrible vengeance on anyone associated with HC on the moon.

Vulnerable to gold and silicon.

The Result

You met Eric Leahy a servant of The Banshee and a magic user in his own right. He was leading experiments run by HC intended to join together The Verdant and The Real.

You managed to discover that The Banshee was half of Artria and determined how to join them together. You did so successfully, making the two of them whole and empowering Artria to act more of her own accord. This also gave you full control of the moon base.

"I'm just a RiotGurrl, dodging that monster hurl."

The Spin: 2106/03/19

Prologue

A Keyfall rained down on SoCentWa, exacerbating the complaints of the citizens who live there and have been ignored by EPD and HC as their interfaces with The Virtual became less stable and Flares started causing weird events in the area. The heavily biomechanically modified Roller Derby Team and Gang RyotGuuurls was causing chaos before, but now has become lead organizers in a full blown active protest in SoCentWa Square. Their leader (though now only in the gang, and not the Roller Derby) Sasha "Sash" Shovegood believes that there must be a key to the service elevators that would allow free access to SoCentMid. Sash believes that breaking out into the Mids (which have, thus far, been free of the Flares) and causing damage and chaos is the only way to get attention to the trouble occuring in SoCentWa and she has been organizing a search (which you helped with) for the key. She hasn't found it yet.

Main Location

SoCentWa Main Square

The Monster

The Variokaryon [varioh-carie-ohn] - Sasha "Sash" Shovegood:

"It's me and my crew and we're going to take down the pigs and burn those uppers out."

"I'd do anything for this town"

Leads the protests, but quit the Vert team months ago when SoCentWa entered what was basically lockdown. Always threw herself bodily into games, often need bio or mech grafts to repair the damage. Became addicted to the grafts. Shares its body with a Daemon. Faces have been grafted all over her body by Dr. Cole, she hides them under a long grey trenchcoat.

She is tall, bulky with mustle and constantly wears a grim expression under a clean-shod dome.

Weak against fire and face damage

The Result

Dr. Juan Cole runs a cheap cybersurgery clinic in SoCentWa that has been the main source of biomechanical grafts (both needed and optional) for the area. He was using the debt RyotGuurls member Susan "Suze" B. Agony was in to him in order to have her help him perform his own search through the results of the Keyfall on behalf of "his mistress".

Angiophages, parasites from The Verdent, are able to enter some of the humans and spread, as they build up their power they are able to possess a part of the human they are in - the human's heart - animate it, eat their way out of their host and go looking for more. You've seen one and managed to banish another, but where there's one there's more.

The growing protest (or riot, depending on who you ask) in SoCentWa Square has only grown, The Enclave Police Department has sent reinforcements, including previous collaborator with you Claire Guimaras. The square has become more active recently and the police have pulled out riot gear and are starting to fire beanbags to keep the crowd in the square. Wrad Marge, ex-Roller Derby champion and special correspondent to news organization The Spin, has met you but is currently focused mostly on covering the protest.

HermatigeCorp (or HC) has already taken a bunch of damage to its property in SoCentWa (Ad Sim emitters and Public Flattabs mostly) and has hired a contingent of the Free Battalion, a mercenary group best known for their fierce loyalty to their contracts and bladded Anubis-head-helmets. After an unknown group believed to be led by the RyotGuurls killed a number of the mercenaries in the Free Battalion's temporary base at a local diner, a full contingent is being sent down to reinforce EPD and keep the Wall-eis contained.

The Luchodor has become a minor celebraty supporting the cause of the SoCentWa citizens with the power of his fanbase.

Sash sent Suze and her friend Boytoy George to collect more keys with you, during which time you killed and hurt a number of Free Battalion mercenaries in a diner. Suze left with most of the keys the Free Battalion had collected and then she hurt and knocked out George, but thanks to your intervention Suze now believes that George is dead. Sash doesn't understand why Suze would be a traitor, but believes it. Suze and Dr. Juan Cole's girlfriend Christher Armsstrong both had the same distinctive stitching around their grafts, likely a flourish of a single surgeon. Likely Cole himself, as Christher was passing out flyers to get more people to get grafts at Cole's clinic (not something her fellow RyotGuurls were a fan of).

You eventually confronted Sash and she revealed her monstrous nature. She could not be allowed to continue to the Uppers and you were able to defeat her, though not before most of her RyotGuurls fell to either her unleashed monsterous nature, the infused power gifted by The Mother of Daemons or conflict between you, the RyotGuurls and the Free Battalion

A changling awakens... and he's hungry.

The Spin: 2106/03/26

Prologue

The return of the Mother of Daemons to The Virtual, the border between The Verdent and The Real, has stirred up all sorts of trouble.

Main Location

Cypressmont

The Monster

Rhys Watson the Werewolf

Weak to:

• Silver

The Result

In The Suburban Isle of Cypressmont you encountered Rhys Watson, the Daemon Werewolf. He was a changeling like you, but different, merged and in hibernation until he woke up, hungry and stuck in The Virtual, seeking to consume power and manifest in The Real. His tactics and power destabilized The Real and The Virtual and the things dependent on it, like Cypressmont's tall dam walls.

You now know: the Changelings who were lost in The Virtual are waking up.

A monster destabalizes The Wall of The Enclave.

The Spin: 2106/04/02

Prologue

"There were changelings who did not become oracles, but they became other things, some became little better than Daemons in their own right, some were lost, and many we put to sleep. But now the link between The Real and The Verdant, the space we call The Virtual, has become destabilized, and power is on the move."

Virt failures in WeCentWa have caused unrest and now more EPD and Free Battalion manage border control between WeCentWa and the Mids, but Enclave Residents aren't the only ones interested in making their way to the upper levels.

Main Location

The border between WeCentWa and WeCentMid

The Monster

The Gorgon

Her eyes have been replaced with mirror lenses, dark glass inset into her face that looks like lenses. They glow around the borders of the glass, where it meets skin, with etheric green power. She wears what appears to have been a smart dark suit now fadded and tattered into a uniform gray color. Her skin is a pale gray and her fingers are capped with sharp metal fingernails. Atop her head snakes flicker back and forth whirling while also shifting in form from snakes, to metal blades, to sparking wires.

The Result

The Gorgon Awakens. Without even thinking she begins to coma people in The Real, pull their etheric spirit into The Virtual, where she turns them into stone and slowly drains their etheric energy until they die in the Real. She begins climbed through The Vert from WestCentWa to WestCentMid. You also noticed that The Wall seemed to have some strange failures.

You also encountered Zeroth a hacker working for HC who has some real power in The Virtual, but is bound by HC via an addiction to microtransactions. He seemed to be working with the gorgon, or manipulating her.

At the end you found yourself facing off against a Gorgon, awoken only recently, who was drawing power out of people in The Real, causing them to fall into comas and then eventually die.

She seemed protected by Zeroth, who you fought almost to death, but let him live badly hurt and stripped of some of his HC Gear.

You made your way into the Gorgon's demesne and fought. The Mother of Daemons showed up with an interest in her and in you but you managed to banish the MoD.

You defeated the Gorgon. Some of her victims woke up, whom you saved as a result, but it was clear that her intent had more to do with her interest in absorbing energy to change her situation in some way.

Things are getting worse in the Wall regions. An investigation uncovers gangsters and gargoyles

The Spin: 2106/04/02

Prologue

Letters:

The Crooked asked: What is the state of the allegiances between the criminal underworld and the factions of law enforcement?

Some factions of the EPD have been receiving significant bribes, some believe laundered from HC, to ignore reports of a particular nature (the weird). A faction of criminals have begun to nose into these payments and been using them to get in with bribe-ready or blackmail-able cops. The cops have, as a result, basically been providing hints about where incidents have occurred and left criminals to do clean up. A Russian import, the Vory V Zakone have used to opportunity to both expanded their protection business and put quite a few cops in their pockets.

It is believed that the alliances between the Vory and the EPD in the wake of these bribes has changed the power structure, moving from a smaller group led by a Vory (a criminal who climbed the ranks) to a Avtoritet (a government official of some sort who runs things from a distance)

Notably a less organized grouping of criminals has connected these incidents with people falling into comas and taken the opportunity to rob them.

The Luchador asked: Had anyone met The Oracle of Clocks, where, when and in what context?

No one has seen the avatar you described recently, but when she was seen a while back it was usually in or around HC systems. Apparently a few of your more savvy users recall a rumor that she had a reputation for walking through HC Intrusion Countermeasures like they were nothing. She often was spotted near the Virt locations mapped to Real locations that had newly deployed HC tech and occasionally brought people on runs against HC systems.

She was also often seen in the company of other women who called themselves Oracles.

The Monstrous focused on: A useful prompt for the possessed AI in the records room.

You focus in on the AI you encountered in The Records Room and you feel there is a lot more there that you could know. All sorts information might be guarded by similar agents to which you feel a drive to get access. The room is filled with useful information about what connects HC and The Verdant and how HC was involved in originally linking them.

You also got a sense that the entity possessing the AI in The Records Room will grant you entrance only if you provide a boon or something that proves the possessed system is required to give you access.

Main Location

WeCentWa

The Monster

A flight of Gargoyles

Game On:

The Crooked's sources in the criminal underworld have been reporting that the Cosa Nostra, the primary underworld gang in The Enclave, has recently found itself on a back foot fighting the Vory V Zakone. The Vory have found themselves at an advantage as their enforcers have been undergoing a ritual called "puteshestviye k rechnym zemlyam - Journey to the Riverlands" which seem to grant those who undergo it a significantly enhanced set of capabilities without having to undergo expensive grafts or cybernetic enhancements. The Vory have used this opportunity to both expanded their protection business and put quite a few cops in their pockets. The Mob, in an attempt to follow suit, have developed their own ritual (acqua al maestro - Water to the Master) and begun to empower some of their own enforcers, but it has caused issues in the existing Cosa Nostra power structure and started to create rifts between them and their established traditional mercs.

WeCentWa has been put into complete lockdown following what EPD are calling a terrorist incident at the main transit station that allows movement between Western Wall boroughs and any of the mids or upper levels. This is causing a particular problem as WeCentWa is already overloaded with refugees who moved into camps on the streets following an evacuation from WeSoWa, a next door borough. Exacerbating this situation further is the increasing flares at the western wall boroughs have been increasing technical failures, disrupting connections to The Virtual, and causing the Wall's active filtering and water handling systems to fail, this caused the flood in WeSoWa and it is causing water leakage all over WeCentWa, alarming residents who see an inability to get to the mids as a potential death sentence should another area of the west walls flood.

In your investigation of the situation you found a local chapter of the Cosa Nostra, mostly disgruntled and feeling pressure from the Russian Vory, in the local restaurant Grub and Go. You were ignored by Al Hensah, the underwhelming cook, and you spoke with Mart Quats, an overweight tracksuit-wearing man with an Italian accent who offered you money and allies in exchange for pushing out the local lideri (aka chapter) of the Vory who have taken over a street he call 'Ruski Road' a few blocks away and have been using it as a base of operations. You agreed to help him out.

You also saw for yourself the rift that is forming between the Cosa Nostra's enforcers, learning from Stafford Lynch, a merc with significant jaguar mods, that they have been moving work over to internal folks who look unmodified but can somehow hold their own.

You then explored the area that the Vory have taken over, a block of dilapidated three-level brownstones with stores on the bottom floors, including an abandoned and torn up chinese restaurant, Jenny's bar (which you saw having its owner being shook down by a Vory member), and Real Enclave Cafe The Best tm, which appeared to have a Vory hangout in the back that you snuck into. The hideout had a gun safe (from which you pulled all the firing pins), a ritual kit, which you stole the knife out of, that looked like it was meant to tap into the power of The Verdant, records of them shaking down various parts of the neighborhood for protection money and bribing at least one local EPD. There was also just a ton of empty alcohol bottles.

While investigating the joined backyard of this block The Monstress transformed into a flying squirrel and was able to hear a high pitched pattern of sounds that was coming from the borough's Core Park. You investigated and found more refugees at the edge of the park, but none in the center, as they were afraid of something there that was rumored to be taking people. Some of the refugees have become a fan of The Luchodor for his casts showing the poor conditions and garnering public support for the refugees on The Virtual.

The Core Park is divided into a huge sculpture garden, with each section showing different types of sculptures and as you investigated you found one that came to life. A gargoyle who claimed to be part of a group. It attacked you and you had it on the ropes when it was catapulted away in a single punch by an enthusiastic Vory enforcer Prit Astoky (who you noticed seemed to have power running through him). Prit claimed he was there just to knock it back but not to kill it, so he could continue collecting protection money from the refugee camp. When you didn't go along with him, he left, and was angry at you and no longer considering you a possible ally.

After your encounter you also met Adel Martinez and Aethelbert (Bertie) Butler two refugees and amateur detectives who were investigating how the Vory became such a plague on the local refugee camp and told you about their strange rituals.

You were stopped in your investigation by Officer Kooring Macquarie who was on the take with the local Vory lideri, however you convinced him that the Vory were too dangerous, their recent activities threatening the soundness of The Enclave's flood walls and were able to talk your way out of an encounter.

You tracked one of the Gargoyles through its weakness to daylight to the abandoned Chinese restaurant but when you were on the edge of defeating it, the Mother of Daemons intervened. She and her giant hound protected it enough to get away but not before she revealed to you that she has been using the disruptive nature of interactions between The Verdant and The Real in order to break through the security between the levels of The Enclave in order to destroy the HC and The Virtual and then find and assassinate the CEO of HermitageCorp, whom she blames for being stuck in The Verdant for the last decade and for tearing her from those she cared about. You decided you'd get to him and eliminate him first.

She warned you not to interfere with the changelings who have been awakening and emerging from The Verdant in monstrous form, coinciding with her arrival back in The Virtual after being stranded to wander The Verdant for the last decade. She also warned you off interfering with the empowered humans. You also found that the Gargoyles actually are statues possessed by changelings who spirits were stuck in The Verdant but have recently been passing through or into The Virtual to emerge into The Real.

In your encounter you almost managed to separate the spirit possessing the stone form from it's physical anchor with a combination of a magic containment circle and a banishment. You may remember that this isn't the first time you managed this, as you did the same thing on the moonbase to separate Eric Lehey from the possession of Cor Larana.

You then staked out the Vory hideout in the bodega, and saw them initiate an empowerment ritual. You broke it up and were forced to kill the local Vory leadership of Sylvia Lind and empowered Vory enforcer Prit Astoky. In the combat and the beginning of the ritual you saw a significant uptick in flairs, even to the point of one of Lind's attacks on you being a literal ball of reality disruption. As you were about to clean up the situation Bertie Butler stepped into the empowerment circle and power flowed into him causing him to pass out. Unsure what would happen next you sent him to the moonbase to be watched over by Artria.

You managed to defeat the gargoyles, including banishing Phil the Metal Gargoyle to be a stable person in The Verdant.

Al Hensah, is going to be their contact for the Cosa Nostra and will tell them all about future Vory incursions.

You also made friends with Bella, mob wizard.

Purchased the equipment to make one anti-magic amulet and formal armor for The Luchador, with silver green accents and glowing bits.

Finally, you managed to stop the flooding that was going to sink WeCentWa.

A journey to better understand The Verdant, The Virtual and The Mother of Daemons

The Spin: 2106/04/09

Location:

The Dataverse within The Records Room system on the Moonbase

Met:

Tom Ridgeway - an older gentlemen in disheveled clothes and Tier 4 manager for the HC Datasci team, he lived in the Spire and has been locked in to the dataverse for 10 years.

YS/x - Demands that you return with a boon.

The Mi-go: The Mi-go looks something like a cross between a fungus, a lobster and a bat. It is pinkish, fungoid, and crustacean-like with a "convoluted ellipsoid" composed of pyramided, fleshy rings and covered in antennae where a head would normally be. Its crustacean-like body bears numerous sets of paired appendages. It also possess a pair of membranous bat-like wings. Apparently from Pluto.

AI M3DOW: you may call him Overseer Medow. He is the primary administration AI for the HC 3rd Slice Dataverse.

The Theta Cultists: Agents of a mysterious cult that seems to have formed out of HC employees stuck in the dataverse over the last decade. They speak of The Decayer and seem to be allied with the Mi-go. They have distinctive dark brown robes withy black stoles and a θ symbol on the back or front. They move very fast, can use magic and seem to have some interest in maintaining the state of the Dataverse, or perhaps have just resigned themselves to it.

Game On:

Deciding what to do next with all this new knowledge

The Spin: 2106/04/23

Location:

The Moonbase

Game On:

Collaborated with multiple folks on the moonbase to help figure out what to do about Antim Quinn, who we now know is The Mother of Daemons. Also looking at solutions for the problems that HC is presenting by fracking The Verdant.

The future is...

You've returned to a relatively stable moonbase.

Most of the standard humans are off base leaving you with

an unconscious Eric Leahy (Trapped in the Summoning Circle Lab)
a disembodied Cor Larana (Trapped in the Summoning Circle Lab)
the inhabitants of Entity Storage (Trapped there)
Divi the Droid,
and Artria of course.

Also remaining, if a little less clear in their purpose:

the body of Brea Rush (who you met in Entity Storage)
Inquiry AI 334 - Installed in the Records Room - Partially controlled by Gomory an etheric component of YS/x
Eliabeth (Elli) Cordova, who has remained aboard trying to get your help to find the missing Antim Quinn.

When we last left off it was clear that the Mother of Daemons has been manipulating people and manifesting power and possession into The Real, your most recent encounter left you with the sense that she was trying to push things from The Verdent into The Real. HC had been experimenting with the same idea on the moonbase, with their best result being Artria (though her manifestation resulted in half stuck in The Virtual, half insane in The Real).

The result of these manifestations have been globes of energy that you've seen the Mother of Daemons handling, taking away from failed enemies; the empowering and later possession of Eric Leahy, and the body-part possessions that you saw during the activity in SoCentWa. The flares in SoCentWa also seem to be the result of the Mother trying to push things through the border.

You also now know that The Virtual runs as a part, empowered and interesting with, The Verdant a realm different from our own but nearby. At first HC tapped into this power source inadvertently but now does so quite purposefully.

Finally, a decade ago, when Artria first was pulled by HC into the AI system that provides support to many users of The Virtual, she called upon the decedents of Changelings that had been sent to The Real centuries ago to help stop the Daemons that the connection between The Verdant and The Real seemed to summon to attack humans in The Virtual. These were The Oracles and they died fighting off the Daemons. When Artria recently awoke and pulled you in for help you saw the last of them get eaten by a Daemon.

There's only one Earth and one Green Patch per Quad, so keep it healthy

Our future relies on sharing this planet with the animals man, so join us and keep them safe.

Weekly meetings at the Crazy Cats Club.

Save space in your ruck with our new collapsibles

Hitaki FC presents a new line of assault rifles and shotguns for the discerning runner or corpsec requisition agent, available wholesale and single order. Follow through to our Virt Space to get your hands on our latest and see just how small they collapse down.

Computer Engineers, Virtual Techs and QA Needed!

We saved The Enclave and we can save you too. Join HermitageCorp's staff and take your skills to their limits, learn new ones, and get access to The Spire and some of the best tech on Vert spaces ever created.

Get our branded shirts with an all text map of The Enclave retroboi

North Western Upper| North Central Upper| North Eastern Upper
North Western Mids | North Central Mids | North Eastern Mids
North Western Wall | North Central Wall | North Eastern Wall

West Northern Upper|                    | East Northern Upper  
West Northern Mids |     _HC Peak_      | East Northern Mids 
West Northern Wall |    Upper Core      | East Northern Wall
West Central Upper |     Mid Core       | East Central Upper
West Central Mids  |    Lower Core      | East Central Mids
West Central Wall  |                    | East Central Wall 
West Southern Upper|                    | East Southern Upper
West Southern Mids |   _The Basement_   | East Southern Mids 
West Southern Wall |    _Flood Zone_    | East Southern Wall

South Western Upper| South Central Upper| South Eastern Upper
South Western Mids | South Central Mids | South Eastern Mids
South Western Wall | South Central Wall | South Eastern Wall

Recovered Weapons for Sale

TopGun, The Enclave's most popular storefront for lightly-used weaponry, has a special on machine guns after having recovered and repared a store from The Wall region. Visit our shops in the area to get a steep discount!

Collect IDentiC for cents on the dollar

Ads are cheap on our virtual search space.

Join Protesters in supporting the inventor of The Virtual

Check the Hashtag QuinnForTheWin to find your local protest event against HC, and it's allies in the Borough Council, and in support of HC employees and all labor!